Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle travel control apparatus which decelerates and (automatically) stops a vehicle when a driver of the vehicle has fallen into an anomalous state in which the driver has lost his/her ability to drive the vehicle.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed an apparatus which determines whether or not a driver of a vehicle has fallen into an anomalous state in which the driver has lost his/her ability to drive the vehicle (for example, a state in which the driver has fallen asleep while driving or a state in which the mental and bodily functions of the driver have stopped), and automatically stops the vehicle, irrespective of whether or not the brake is operated, when the apparatus determines that the driver has fallen into the anomalous state (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2015-54547).
Hereinafter, such a vehicle which is automatically stopped will also be referred to as an “auto-stopping vehicle.”
However, in the case of the conventional apparatus, the place at which the vehicle is automatically stopped is not specifically determined. Therefore, the conventional apparatus may cause the auto-stopping vehicle to stop at a place where an ordinance prohibits parking or stopping of vehicles, or a place where the ordinance prohibits lane changes in the lane in which the auto-stopping vehicle is travelling and therefore if the auto-stopping vehicle is actually stopped, the auto-stopping vehicle would hinder smooth traffic of other vehicles.